Nest announces new hardware products in answer to critics

Updated 4:42 pm, Wednesday, September 20, 2017

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Nest's Erick Low gives a demo of the company's video doorbell that will be sold next year.

Media: SFChronicle

Nest, the struggling high-tech hardware company owned by Alphabet, unveiled a lineup of new devices on Wednesday: an Internet-connected outdoor camera, a video doorbell and a security system that the company says can be installed by consumers in under 30 minutes.

The Palo Alto company has faced pressure to unveil new products, not just iterations of its existing devices, and some analysts said Nest was doing just that.

“This has the chance to get Nest on track with their competitors,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy.

Yet some of the devices Nest presented won’t go on sale until next year, while competitors continue to grab pieces of a growing market.

A range of companies now makes Internet-connected household devices, or smart-home gadgets, from Amazon, Honeywell and GE to Samsung and LG to a host of little-known Chinese manufacturers that compete largely on price. Nest has also faces internal rivalries, as Google, a sister company under Alphabet, has introduced its own smart devices. Nest has emphasized easy-to-use software and high-end design to differentiate itself.

The Nest Camera IQ Outdoor sells for $349 and will have facial recognition technology and a speaker that is 15 times louder than the Nest Cam IQ, Nest’s indoor smart camera. The camera will be available in November and be sold in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Matt Rogers, Nest co-founder and chief product officer, introduces a suite of home security devices during a news conference for tech journalists at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Matt Rogers, Nest co-founder and chief product officer, introduces a suite of home security devices during a news conference for tech journalists at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Nest unveiled new hardware products including a new outdoor camera, security system and doorbell Wednesday.

Nest unveiled new hardware products including a new outdoor camera, security system and doorbell Wednesday.

Photo: Wendy Lee

Nest announces new hardware products in answer to critics

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Nest also presented an Internet-connected doorbell called Nest Hello that will go on sale next year. It did not reveal a price. The doorbell will have a high-dynamic-range camera, night vision and facial recognition to notify Nest users who is at their door. If users are busy, they can select quick responses that the device will read aloud to visitors, such as telling a deliveryman to leave the package at the door. New parents or home workers can set their doorbell on silent mode to get notifications through an app, rather than ring a chime that could awaken a baby or disrupt a conference call.

At an event Wednesday in San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, Nest co-founder Matt Rogers said the company’s goal is “to create a home that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it.”

In the $300 million video doorbell market, Nest will compete against Ring, which sells one for as little as $179. Nest said its app and the camera’s image quality will make the Nest Hello stand out.

Tom Kerber, a director overseeing Internet-of-things strategy for Parks Associates, said sales for video doorbells have grown dramatically in recent years because of the popularity of online shopping.

The last item that Nest announced was a security system made up of three products called Nest Guard, Nest Tag and Nest Detect that will start at $499 and become available in November.

Nest Guard is a portable motion sensor that goes into a main room or hallway and arms or disarms the system. It has an alarm that sounds if an intruder comes into the home and will alert a user to a potential break-in through an app. Nest Detect devices are placed near doors and windows to track when they are open. Nest Tags are small fobs that users can tap on their Nest Guard to turn the alarm off; they can be set to only work during certain hours of the day for a cleaning person, dog walker or other visitor.

Only 22 percent of U.S. households with broadband Internet use professional security services, leaving an opportunity for Nest to capture the remainder of the market that isn’t served, Kerber said.

“Nest sounds like they are going at it full bore,” Kerber said.

Michele Turner, Nest’s general manager of security products, said the company talked with the Palo Alto and East Palo Alto police departments as well as former burglars to understand how burglars target homes.

“We learned a lot,” Turner said. Many people do not turn on their security systems because they are too complicated, she said. Nest aimed to “create a security system that was easy enough to live with that you would be able to arm it anytime you needed it,” Turner said in an interview.

With Nest’s security system, it will be up to the users to notify the police if the alarm is triggered. There will be an option for users to sign up for a professional security service.

But Kerber pointed out that Nest has been effective at marketing products like thermostats and smoke detectors. Nest said it will ship more devices this year than it did in 2015 and 2016 put together.

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